Who is Celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel?
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Our choir usually goes on hiatus for the summer, but this year I just had an interior prompting to do something special for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In researching the feast, I see that I'm a johnny-come-lately, for celebrations with Our Lady, under this title, date back for many a century. Here in America, Italians have been celebrating this feast day in thanksgiving ever since their forefathers were given safe passage when they immigrated here. Candlelight processions, parades, bands, fireworks....

    What do you have planned for July 16th? We will be having a 6PM High Mass, with scapular investiture following, and then a dinner. Here is the music scheduled:

    Liber Propers
    Missa Regia (Henri du Mont)
    Prelude: Stella Splendens (OK, so maybe it's about the mount of Montserrat - it's still about Our Lady's mount)
    Processional: Our Lady of Mount Carmel
    Offertory: Ave Maris Stella (chant)
    Communion: 1) Ego Sum Panis Vivus (Bottigliero); 2) Flos Carmeli (chant); 3) Salve Maria Sanctissima (Schubiger)
    Litany of Loreto (sung)
    Scapular Investiture: 1) Singularis (Carmelite chant); 2) Immaculate Heart of Mary (Charles Repper)
    Thanked by 2JulieColl oldhymns
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    This program sounds delightful.

    Expeditus, so happy to see you're singing the Messe Royale du Mont! We've been singing it here for the last six weeks and everyone remarks on how beautiful and fresh-sounding it is. People come up to me all the time after Mass to ask what mass setting it is.

    Yesterday we were fortunate to have two violinists join us and accompany the Ordinary along with the keyboard. One was playing the melody and the other a light harmony. It was quite splendid.

    We are learning DuMont's Missa Regia III now as a follow-up till the end of summer. Great stuff.

    BTW, what is the processional? Is it an English hymn?
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Yes, JulieColl, the Processional is an English hymn. The text is by Eleanor C. Donnelly, and the Arr. from Concone.
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    We celebrated the feast as well. Of note, besides entrance and communion propers in English, we sang the Offertory from the GR Recordare Virgo Mater. For a communion motet, three of us women sang Kevin Allen's O Sanctissima. A beautiful piece.
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • ScottKChicago
    Posts: 349
    My Benedictine friends at Saint Meinrad probably observed it as Our Lady of Einsiedeln. Same Lady, of course!
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    ScottK, I am unfamiliar with Our Lady of Einsiedeln, so I looked it up, and indeed it does say that, "Each July 16, monks of Subiaco Abbey celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Einsiedeln."
  • ScottKChicago
    Posts: 349
    St. Meinrad Archabbey and Subiaco Abbey are both part of the Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictines, which started when Swiss monks came over to Indiana and started St. Meinrad Abbey. They came from the Abbey of Einsiedeln (the name means a home for one, or a hermitage, after the hermitage of St. Meinrad himself, in which he was murdered by robbers, who were subsequently dive-bombed by two ravens so they could be caught and punished, which is why the logo of St. Meinrad Archabbey shows the Archabbey Church towers with two ravens flying nearby...look out!) Anyway, they celebrate this feast under that title rather than the Mt. Carmel one. The church at St. Meinrad in Indiana is the Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln, so this is its solemnity. And the church and the rest of the archabbey are highly recommended for a visit or retreat. Beautiful and holy place.
    Thanked by 2JulieColl CHGiffen
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    who were subsequently dive-bombed by two ravens
    Reminds me of our poor innocent (!) tuxedo tom cat who has been dive-bombed and harassed by a mockingbird and a starling for the last couple of weeks whenever he ventures out into the open. They sit on the fence and scold him for hours.

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